Leprosy Cases In Wa On The Increase

Wa Municipal Health Authorities say there has been a resurgence of leprosy in the Municipality, an active case search on leprosy and other skin diseases has revealed.
A total of 14 new leprosy cases were detected during a recent case search conducted by the Health Authorities in June, 2011, bringing the total to 28 within the first half of the year as against six and seven cases in 2009/2010 respectively.
Madam Theresa Tampie, the Acting Municipal Director of Health Services, disclosed this during the 2011 mid-year performance review meeting at Wa on Wednesday.
Madam Tampie therefore called for concerted effort among all stakeholders in order to find a solution to the spread of the disease.
She said there had also been a marginal decline in cases of malnutrition as well as the use of iodated salt in the Municipality.
In addition, there was low case detection rate in TB and HIV/AIDS in the period under review.
On Reproductive and Child Health (RCH), Madam Tampie noted that there was a reduction in maternal deaths, improvement in family planning acceptance rate and first trimester registration as well as skilled delivery.
She however noted that there were challenges of high teenage pregnancy and still birth rate which needed to be tackled with all the seriousness they deserved.
On expansion of health infrastructure, the Acting Municipal Health Services Director said Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) had for this year approved the construction of eight Community-based Health and Planning Services (CHPS) compounds to complement those constructed by the Municipal Assembly.
Madam Tampie, however, lamented the poor involvement of community members in the CHPS’ concept and urged all Assembly members and community leaders to complement the efforts of nurses to promote primary health care in their areas.
She mentioned poor staffing, lack of accommodation, poor roads to health centres and CHPS zones and increase in non-communicable diseases as some of the major factors militating against quality health delivery in the Municipality.
Participants at the review meeting were taken through medical screening as part of efforts to control non-communicable diseases.
A non-communicable disease task force was also formed to roll out the exercise to cover all organisations within the Municipality as well as the general public.